Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Is Hispanic family unity being targeted by banking interests?

My brother once worked for a bank in the American Midwest. He was present at a meeting in which the board, all serious, believing Christians, discussed the need to increase lending opportunities in the Hispanic community by breaking down family ties. The Hispanic habit of communal saving and paying in cash was incompatible with the growth of bank profits.

This comment suggests there are more subtle business pressures on the Latino family, pressures which may also have been applied to all families.

The American consumer economy constantly tries to remove private economic functions into the public market, where they can be monitored, taxed, and made more efficient in quantifiable terms.

But the family should not be a mere locus for consumption. The good habits and strong bonds formed in extended familial financial planning surely have an importance we don't recognize until they are gone.

I would appreciate any leads to material about the anti-family strategies of the banks, which may not even realize how destructive their work can be.